In an interview with Reuters published today, Canon executive Masaya Maeda said the company "will launch an interesting product next year" in the growing compact interchangeable lens segment now dominated by Panasonic, Olympus and Sony. Maeda did not say whether it would be a mirrorless design, but did offer that it would be small.

He also noted that by the end of last month, camera production had returned to pre-quake levels, and that Canon was taking steps to increase the number of digital SLRs it builds each year from about seven million units to 10 million.